The primary goal of any society’s legal system is to encourage (if not force) its citizens to live together in harmony. And yet what is seemingly unique about the Law of ancient Judea was that it did more than merely proscribe punishments for specific acts of improper behavior – it actually demanded that its citizens be good to one another as well. Indeed, it was a direct violation of the Law in Jesus’ day to hate a fellow Israelite (see Leviticus 19:17), to hold a grudge against one’s neighbor (see Leviticus 19:18), to refuse to relieve a neighbor of his or her burdens (see Exodus 23:5 & Deuteronomy 22:4), to neglect to help a neighbor in danger (see Leviticus 19:16), to refuse to show honor towards the old & the wise (see Leviticus 19:32), to take revenge upon a wrongdoing neighbor (see Leviticus 19:18), to put a fellow Jew to shame (see Leviticus 19:17), &/or to neglect to openly rebuke a communal sinner (see Leviticus 19:17).

That having been said, even though Jesus obviously agreed with the underlying principles of these edicts (see Matthew 5:39-48 & Luke 6:27-36 et al), he still went out of his way to challenge them as well – by openly encouraging his fellow Jews to transcend the same. For Jesus it was not enough to merely “obey the Law” in regards to one’s neighbors. Jesus wanted his followers (all Jews, actually) to give at every opportunity, not only during those times mandated by the Law; to give to everyone, and this whether it was legally required to do so or not (see Matthew 5:42 & Luke 6:30‘s “Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone steals your possessions, do not ask for their return”). Indeed, where the Law demanded that all Jews treat their fellow Jews with basic respect, Jesus demanded that everyone treat everyone else – Jew & non-Jew alike – with loving tenderness. Where the Law’s 10 Commandments proscribed how Jews were to honor God by essentially announcing what they were explicitly forbidden to do to one another (see Exodus 20:2-17 & Deuteronomy 5:6-21), Jesus made it clear that merely “obeying the Law” was not enough – that proactively open acts of selfless generosity to any & all in need were required for salvation as well (see Matthew 19:18-21 & Luke 18:20-22).¹ And where the Law was admittedly correct in insisting that Jews not judge their fellow Israelites, Jesus made it discernibly lucid that this was not enough either – that we have all been called not merely to avoid judging others, but rather to focus on cleansing our own sins of callous selfishness by reaching out to others with acts of forgiving kindness (see Matthew 7:1-5, Matthew 18:21-22, Matthew 23:25-26, Luke 6:36-42, & John 8:1-11 et al).²

Yes, it was indeed the case that Jesus essentially affirmed the Ten Commandments by coagulating the final five of them into a single echo of Leviticus 19:18‘s command to “Love your neighbor” (see Matthew 22:37-40, Mark 12:30-31, & Luke 10:25-27 – also Deuteronomy 15:7-8‘s “do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor”), and yet it is critical to realize that he radically redefined the term “neighbor” in the process – transforming it from the Law’s traditional meaning of “fellow Jew” to his gospel’s new meaning of “stranger &/or enemy” (see Luke 10:29-37).

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Filed under: Jesus Christ, a most Holy Heretic by Scaughdt